Personal Challenge

This month, Chat Bleu chose the theme “Personal challenge”. She even went on to explain:

There are thoughts and desires that run around your heads. One of them may turn into a personal goal, a challenge, a way to push your limits. So what would you do to fulfill it? Show the challenge you set upon yourself to make your dreams come true. Surprise us with your pictures.

I was always the smallest in the classroom. I’d get the lowest grades in PE. For my High School finals, the teacher even gave me the minimal passing grade “because you showed up and you applied yourself, but I can’t give you a better grade so that it doesn’t reflect badly on the good ones” (which is a pretty depressing thing to say to a teen who tried his best all year to keep up with lads twice his size, if you ask me). I was so used to being told that I was physically good for nothing that I ended up believing in it. I’ve always wanted to find some way to believe in my physical abilities. To have the same confidence when it comes to my body as I have when it comes to my brains. The wall gave me that. Every time I climb, I challenge myself, to try and push myself to new heights. I learned to believe in my strength, in my agility. I managed to go beyond the limit that others’ words set for me. And it felt good. Every time I get up there, I am in control. I’m not the best climber out there, far from it. I fall, and that’s ok. But I’m better than teenage me ever thought I would be. And that’s what matters, right?